|
On Monday, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed a new executive order aimed at safeguarding the state's sagebrush ecosystem and the wildlife that depend on it. The executive order is aimed at protecting sagebrush habitat and migration corridors of species such as pronghorn and sage-grouse through a Nevada Habitat Conservation Network. “Whether it is mule deer or desert tortoises no animal thrives without a healthy ecosystem,” Sisolak said, “and this executive order puts a crucial focus on the corridors through which wildlife migrate to survive.”
The Nevada Departments of Wildlife, Conservation, and Transportation will head up the project, working in tandem to create Sagebrush Habitat and Connectivity Plans. Such planning and analysis will allow the state to more effectively and intentionally conserve declining wildlife populations, better identify migration corridors, approach conservation efforts collaboratively, and tailor infrastructure developments within the state to take such factors into account.
Shortly after Sisolak's order, the Bureau of Land Management's Nevada office (BLM) announced a new policy for prioritizing the conservation and restoration of big-game migration corridors on public lands. The Nevada BLM's new policy complements the executive order by providing guidance on the removal and modification of connectivity-reducing fences, directing the agency to avoid development in crucial winter range and migration corridors, and prioritizing research opportunities.
These new developments emphasize the importance of ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors in protecting fragile ecosystems. Similar efforts are ongoing across numerous Western states; all of these efforts, from establishing land protections for corridors to encouraging agency and department coordination will be essential to conserving an ecologically functional 30% of America by 2030.
Interior announces first oil drilling sales of Biden era
Yesterday afternoon, the Interior Department told a federal judge that it will soon begin the process of holding new onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales, restarting the leasing process as early as next Tuesday. The timeline puts Interior on track to hold offshore lease auctions as early as October, and onshore auctions in early 2022. The resumed sales come after a court ordered a preliminary hold on the Biden administration's leasing pause; the pause was meant to give the department time to assess the leasing program.
The Interior Department has stated that it "will continue to exercise the authority and discretion provided under law to conduct leasing in a manner that fulfills Interior’s legal responsibilities, including to take into account the programs’ documented deficiencies." Jesse Prentice-Dunn of the Center for Western Priorities clarified, saying, "The law is clear. Interior Secretary [Deb] Haaland has broad discretion to determine which lands—if any—are available for oil and gas leasing. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, and the well-documented shortcomings of the leasing system, she must ensure that any public land leases that are put up for auction fully account for the costs that our children and grandchildren will have to pay."
|
The oil and gas industry has been allowed to call the shots in leasing federal lands across the West. The accumulated impact of 100 years of rampant oil and gas development on public lands in the American West is substantial.”
